1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a fish processing machine, which comprises: a first processing section, inside which the fish are conveyed in a direction transverse to their longitudinal axes, for the purpose of severing the heads and/or tails, for example; a transfer station, at an end portion of said first processing section, with a cover arranged above the path of the fish, and extending essentially vertically at its outlet side; and a second processing section adjoined at an angle to said first section e.g. for gutting and or filleting, inside which second section the fish are conveyed in the longitudinal direction.
2. Prior Art
Machines of this type have been used in practice for a long time and thus form part of the prior art, which is available as printed matter as well as in the form of the applicant's brochures, e.g. under the reference type BAADER 33 from March 1967 and BAADER 32 from May 1989.
The machines of the type described in these brochures comprise a cover in the transfer region between the first and second processing sections, which cover consists of a covering grid, equipped with grid bars running in the direction of movement of the conveyor in the first processing section. The covering grid encloses the path of the fish in the deflection region of the conveyor which turns over an angle of deflection of about 90.degree. and is arranged to have a distance to the conveyor surface which decreases from the intake to the outlet end, with an average dimension approximately corresponding to the thickness of an average fish to be processed. The covering grid is pivotable about an axis running transverse to the grid bars at the intake portion and is arranged to be displaceable against the force of a spring by the fish. It terminates over a collection channel, at the base of which is located a conveyer which receives the fish in a swimming position.
With these machines, there is a critical handling phase during the processing of the fish in the covered region, that is in the moment of transfer from the sideways to the lengthwise conveying of the fish. The resulting irregularities are caused by the fact that during a short period, each fish is not forceably conveyed, but rather the completion of transfer is left to gravity. However, this leads to the appearance of positioning errors and timing inaccuracies on transfer which are due to the naturally occurring, widely different properties of the fish that are to be processed in succession, like size, consistency, nature of the surface etc., which errors and inaccuracies influence the precision of the processing and thus adversely affect the performance.
This unsatisfactory operation is also caused by the fact that during the conveyance in the turning region, the fish come into contact with the covering grid plate and displace it, while being held against the supporting surface by the corresponding spring force. In this way, a first error can already occur in that the fish have a tendancy to twist due to the braking effect they experience which is caused by the contact of the covering grid on their outer flanks. At the end of the covering grid, that is at the moment when the fish are released, the spring force also impedes the start of the free fall, which can lead to differing fall times and incorrect positioning of the fish on transfer. A third source of error is the effect of centrifugal force during deflection, which can cause an excessive displacement by the covering grid and which leads to such a deviation of the grid, particularly at the discharge region thereof, that the fish strike the side wall of the collection channel and thus are further impeded. This effect can be influenced by increasing the strength of the downward force of the covering grid, but then the first mentioned errors come increasingly into effect.
The above described faults also have the effect that the exact timing in the first processing section is in part so distorted that in the second processing section, tools whose operation is linked to the timing produce imprecise results.
3. Objects of the Invention
It is the main object of the present invention to eliminate the above drawbacks.
It is a particular object of the present invention to improve the conveyance of fish through a deflection area in which their direction of travel and orientation changes whilst they are transferred from one conveyor to another.